I Love Him, I Love Him Not - 8

Hiya people!

Alice: Thank you! As for the confusion part, you'll just have to read on... :)

Latoya: Yes, you are officially crazy. I suspected it for a long time now, but this, this is really the last straw...
Only joking! Lol. I love When Sparks Fly, and I think you are mad to rank my work up there with Pheobe Garden's, but thank you so, so much! It means a lot.
And maybe they will be good together. There's a lot, LOT more to this story - I'm afraid that it'll go on forever! Lol. Again, you'll just have to read on to understand. Everything is explained sooon.... :)

Ivory Gold: Pshht. Modest, much? You are amazingly talented, and don't you forget it! I think I might send you a random email now. ;)

Everybody else: Ta muchly for all the lovely jubbly things you have to say about the story. It really lifts my spirits. :) :) :) :) :)

x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x

My heart shot right back upwards and took its new place as a lump in my throat.

"What about us?" I couldn’t tell if I’d managed to keep the suddenly anxious tremor out of my voice. We’d never been much anyway, so why would the thought of being apart hurt me so immediately? And so strongly?

"I don’t think this thing," he began, gesturing to both of us, "is working out. I like you a lot, but it’s not right. We’re not together enough, we’ve hardly even kissed, we..." Cole began to list things that weren’t good about our relationship, unaware I was already deaf to his excuses. An unexplainable terror at the thought of his departure gripped my stomach, making me feel slightly queasy.

I gripped the edge of the breakfast bar, suddenly faint. Just the thought of losing him, even though he wasn’t really mine, made me convulse.
It wasn’t just pain, though, it was fear. A fear of losing him. My eyes refocused on the fridge, and suddenly, the irrationalness of my reaction gripped me. I shook my head, and snapped back to reality.

What the hell was that?

"...which is why I’ve come to the conclusion that we should try harder.
We probably don’t have much time. We should make it work. Because, no matter what anybody else thinks, Summer, I really like you, and I can’t deny that I want to be with you. Tell me that you want to be with me too." Cole’s words - soft, urgent and so fast that they seemed to be tumbling over each other into a garbled mess - took a second for me to understand.

The clouds cleared, and the strange sadness dissolved. I was no longer afraid. I looked at the boy sat beside me, and smiled at his absurd handsomeness. It was hard to believe that he still wanted me.
The moment was opportune enough to break up with me – I was freaking out from almost the first sentence.

Cole’s face was expectant, wary, and I smiled wider.

"I think you’re right. We should try harder." I replied, and the words felt sweet as honey on my tongue. Even if he didn’t want me a fraction of how much I wanted him, he still wanted me. I wondered briefly what was with his earlier standoffishness, but dismissed it quickly.

"Tell me you want me." Cole repeated huskily, and I realised that I hadn’t answered his request when I’d meant to. My heart rate increased almost double, and fire ran through my veins. My stomach felt hollow, as though the bottom had dropped clean out of it. It was a strangely nice feeling.

"I want you." I whispered, and then there wasn’t even time to blink or breathe or move...Cole’s mouth was on mine within milliseconds, hot and wanting and gentle.

His arms came around me and he lifted me clean off my stool, his mouth never leaving mine, to sit me on the marble breakfast bar. I responded as I’d always meant to; with vigour, to show just how much I really did want him.

Eventually, we had to break off for air, and that seemed an unfair inconvenience. As soon as we’d filled our lungs, though, we were back at it, and then suddenly, Cole slowed down.

His movements became tender, loving, sweet, and I grasped at the little sanity I had left, for his kisses were driving me crazy. I hadn’t even thought about the other side of me until the lights suddenly clicked off.
I realised that I must have gotten too excited and lost my grip on it.

"Whoa – what happened?" Cole asked, breaking away from me and pulling back a little. He looked up at the light bulb, and then at me. A cheeky grin adorned his face. "Mm...Dark and alone. What more could I ask for?" His grin was infectious and I had to beam back, blushing slightly as he reached up to touch the light dimple on my right cheek. I was still Summer after all.

I sighed and pulled out of the circle of his arms. "I better go and have a look at that."

"You? A little Miss Handyman?" he teased, pretending to be shocked. I grinned and shoved his shoulder.

"Mr Handyman, actually. I’m the man of the house." I joked, puffing out my chest and holding an arm out to flex my imaginary biceps. He grabbed my fist and pulled me toward him again.

"You in a moustache – sexy." He chuckled, making me push him again.

"I’m going to have a look. Stay here."

"I wouldn’t dream of moving." He said, and then reached out to stroke my cheek with his thumb, smiling gently as the skin beneath his touch reddened. He seemed a little sheepish as he pulled me back again and planted a kiss softly on my mouth. "Be quick. I’ll miss you."

As soon as I was in the closet under the stairs, I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. My power remained unharnessed for a minute, so when I entered the restricted place, hats and gloves were floating about as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Ugh!" I made a grab at them and pushed them back onto their hooks and shelves, but to no avail. "Stop!" I yelled. Then the strangest thing happened.

Everything did stop, but not the way I meant it to. The scarves and coats and gloves froze in mid air and refused to move. I looked around me and noticed that everything was still, from the dust in the air to the normally gently swaying light bulb above. I raised my wrist to my face and realised that my watch had stopped working.

It took me a moment to comprehend what was happening. The blood in my veins seemed to turn to ice as I realised the extent of my power. I can control time.

I tried to swallow the sudden choking feeling that had swelled in my throat. I can control time.

It was another long moment that made me realise that Cole was still there, in the kitchen, waiting. I wondered if my power had affected him, too.

Apprehensively, I tiptoed to the kitchen and nudged the door open.

"There you are. What took you so long? Why are the lights still out?" He asked warmly, jumping up from his previous position on the counter and taking my hand. He tugged me toward him and I stumbled clumsily, falling heavily against his chest.

He hadn’t been affected. What was all that in the cupboard, then? I glanced around the kitchen and realised that all the inanimate objects were still, as they usually were, but a different kind of still. Like models of the actual things.

The window was slightly open, too, and the breeze fluttering in had raised the light yellow curtains till they almost touched the ceiling. Those, too, were still.

So why was Cole impervious?

"Hey, what’s wrong?" He asked, pulling away from the hug he had enveloped me in and looking at me worriedly.

I’ve wanted to bring you around for a very, very long time.

Beware of the mask.

We probably don’t have much time.

A revolution is coming.

My girlfriend.

Suddenly, a whirlwind of different things were rushing through my mind, as if someone was trying to tell me something. Cole had always seemed strange. He didn’t seem to find little things like frozen curtains odd. He had shown an unexplainable interest in me from the start, until I became his girlfriend. Once he safely had me, he began to be off, as if I was a prize he had been yearning for, but only to show that he had won the game.

I looked at his handsome face, so stunning it was almost unreal. I saved the eyes for last. Bright, bright blue and something I had never noticed before – a band of silver around each iris. Unique. Special. Different.

Leaning forward, I planted my lips against his and marvelled once again at their heat and softness. He was immobile for a second, surprised, before he began to respond. Each kiss like the last. He had two ways of performing them – one fast and urgent, one slow and sweet, like he had read up about it in a manual and was following the steps in his mind. Steps or instructions.

I pulled away from him. "Who are you?" My voice betrayed none of the sudden fear I felt, none of the sudden tentativeness that coursed through my body, making me tense, as if coiled and ready for attack.

Cole didn’t even feign surprise or shock. He didn’t grin and say ‘Cole Lodger’. He didn’t pull me back close to him and say ‘your boyfriend silly, or one of them anyway’ jokingly like the old Cole would have done.

The stranger that stood in front of me frowned, and then smiled a tiny smile, the corner of his mouth tucking up handsomely.

"I wondered how long it would take you to remember." He said, and his voice was different. It lost all of it childish boyishness and became deeper, huskier. A man’s voice.

"I – I don’t understand what you mean." I stuttered, balling my hands into fists to keep them from shaking. Who the hell is he?

The man’s face was back to creased in a frown, and he looked at me as if I was crazy.

"I’m Cole Lodger." He said seriously, and the answer was so ridiculous that I laughed out loud, sinking into the nearest stool that I could grab. Cole watched, waited until my strange hiccupping giggles had trickled off before speaking again. "I knew your father."

That sobered me up pretty quickly. If he knew my father, he must be older than his pretence as a teenager. All traces of humour were gone from the situation.

My back straight and rigid, I managed to spit one word through my tightly clenched teeth.

"How?"

Cole seemed surprised at my question. His eyes widened and he blinked.

"You really don’t remember, do you?" He said, aghast, watching me carefully. Then, all of a sudden, his eyes flickered over the kitchen. Everything was still frozen in place. His eyes found mine again. "Ah."